Roman Marble Bust of Drusus Heads Home

CLEVELAND, Ohio - The Cleveland Museum of Art and the government of Italy announced Tuesday that the museum would return to Italy an ancient Roman marble portrait head of Drusus Minor after learning that it apparently had been stolen in 1944 from a provincial museum near Naples.

The museum removed the head from Gallery 103 last Monday and is preparing to ship it back to Italy, said William Griswold, the museum's director.

"It is disappointing, even devastating, to lose a great object," he said. "On the other hand, the transfer of this object to Italy is so clearly the appropriate outcome that, disappointed though I may be, one can hardly question whether this is the right thing to do."